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Captaincy warning for Brown

Kelly Brown will captain Scotland in the Six Nations - provided he is their first choice openside flanker.

Brown has been told for the first time that the captaincy is his for keeps, but coach Scott Johnson insists that the Saracens back-row needs to nail down the No 7 shirt before thinking about skippering the side.

Johnson said: "I've told Kelly to his face - and there's no use running away from it - if he is good enough to get in the starting XV, he will lead the team.

"But we are only viewing Kelly as purely a number seven now. The six and the eight roles we will leave to other people but he has to cement his place at number seven.

"If he is good enough to do so, he will captain the team. If he's not, we will look for someone else."

Johnson preferred the likes of David Denton and Johnnie Beattie in the six and eight roles during the autumn internationals but insisted there is still room for Brown in his back row.

"We have some good six and eight athletes coming through," said the head coach.

"We need to compete athletically against the bigger nations and we have guys coming through who we feel can do that. Therefore I want to encourage the growth of those players.

"Kelly fits a different mould. He's done really well for Saracens at seven over the last five or six weeks so moving down the path that will be his spot."